


Holds Stronger and Longer

by MobMode



Series: MobMode's Miscellaneous Drakepad's [6]
Category: Darkwing Duck (Cartoon 2018), DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Character Death, Everything Hurts, Gen, Heavy Angst, I cried twice writing this, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-15
Updated: 2019-08-15
Packaged: 2020-09-01 16:47:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20261305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MobMode/pseuds/MobMode
Summary: There are notes all around the house, some hidden better than others.





	Holds Stronger and Longer

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to the Discord for giving me this idea :) I literally cried twice writing this and everything hurts now so I hope I can inflict that pain back on you guys uwu
> 
> Hope you enjoy (you probably wont), kudos and comments much appreciated! (tell me how much you hate me in the comments aldmclaskcdm)

Gosalyn’s dads are probably the lamest dads in existence, but she can’t deny just how much she loves them. The day after her adoption date, she begins finding little Post-it notes in her lunchbox, with notes that differed depending on who packed her lunch that day. Pops liked to write his favorite jokes on his notes while Dad’s tended to be more motivational and cutesy.

_ Hey cupcake! Hope your day at school is going well so far! You've been doing so well lately and your Pops and I are so proud of you! Love you <3 _

_ Muffin! Look what I packed for you today! A muffin! Have a great day! _

_ Keep working hard, Gos! Love you so much! _

They always made her smile, and she made sure to put them away in a safe spot in her room. When her summer break started, she didn’t even get the chance to be sad that she wouldn’t be getting any more notes until the start of school in the fall, as the notes kept happening at home. It was like Pops and Dad made it a competition to see who could leave the most notes around the house, some of them for her and some for each other, which she always gagged at.

_ Your bedhead is always so cute in the morning. _

_ I love you. _

She would tease them whenever she would find their notes for each other, calling them dorks and hopeless, but they kept leaving them around the house for each other to find. Launchpad definitely made it his life’s work to write notes, and she couldn’t go a day without finding one, hidden around her room and throughout the house so much so that she wondered where he even found the time to hide them.

_ You’re the best daughter ever! Your Dad and I love you :) _

_ Your grades are so good right now! Keep it up! _

_ When you go to college I’ll miss you :( _

The last one makes her pause as she reads it. She knew that she was slowly getting older, about to go into high school, and that she would leave the house eventually, but she doesn’t expect that thought to terrify her as much as it does. That night at dinner, she finds herself picking at her food, still thinking about the Post-it from earlier.

“Is everything alright, Gosaroonie?” Launchpad asks, noticing her deep frown and troubled expression. She rolls around a pea for a second with her fork, gritting her teeth as she began to feel tears building up behind her eyes.

“I don’t wanna leave you guys…” she chokes out, burying her face in her hands once the tears begin spilling. Her dads are quick to come to her side, trying to calm her down while rubbing her back and wiping her tears away for her.

“Sweetie, what brought all this on?” her Dad asks, petting at her hair gently. She sniffles as she wipes at her nose, finally calming down a bit, “I- I found one of Pops notes… and… and he mentioned me going to college, it scared me…” she whimpers, pressing her face into her Dad’s chest.

“Aww Princess, I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to make you upset,” Launchpad sighs, frowning at himself for accidentally scaring his daughter. 

“I’ve just been realizing how much you’ve grown and that it’s getting closer to the time that you’re gonna move on with your life. But if you think that means that you’re never gonna see us again you’re wrong, Cupcake!” he laughs, turning her around to grab her shoulders and look her in the eyes. “This house is always going to be yours too, no matter what or how old you are, and you’re not getting rid of us until we’re dead in the ground.”

His words comfort her, even if now she’s terrified at the thought of her Dads dying some day. She gives the both of them a big hug, thanking them for all they do for her and telling them how much she loves them, because she doesn’t say it enough.

Her first day of high school finally comes, and she’s a little scared of all the change going on, having to make new friends and deal with a whole new school, but she allows herself a second to breathe and calm down from all of the day’s excitement during lunch. She opens her lunchbox to find a note from one of her dads, and a quick glance at how long it is tells her it’s from Drake.

_ Pumpkin!!! It's your first day back to school after break, and first day in high school, and I know you must hate it but you're going to kick butt this year and make so many cool new friends because of how awesome you are! Your Pops and I love you so, so much! Have a great day! _

She’s glad she’s sitting by herself as she can feel tears falling down her cheeks, quickly wiping them away before anyone can see.

“Hey, Cupcake-”

“I’m not a little kid anymore, Pops.” she groans, arms crossed over her chest while she fixes Launchpad with a glare where he stands at her door. “You’ve gotta stop calling me those baby names,  _ please _ they’re so annoying.”

Her Pops smile turns into a frown, looking hurt, but he quickly corrects himself, giving her a terrible replica of his usual big, bright smile, and she feels sick to her stomach for a reason she can’t explain.

“Of course, Gosalyn, sorry. Just wanted to let you know that dinner was ready,” he says, looking like he wants to say more but he closes his beak and leaves.

After that night, she notices that both Pops and Dad never call her by any of those old nicknames or leave those notes in her lunchbox that she had gotten used to, making a point to only call her by her name, and she wonders why that makes her sad. She was a senior in high school! About to graduate for goodness sake! She couldn’t keep being called ‘Cupcake’ or ‘Muffin’ anymore. 

On her last day of school she doesn’t have enough time to eat her lunch, too busy making sure all her final assignments and grades were in and saying goodbye to all her friends and favorite teachers so she skips it. Her stomach rumbles at her when she finally makes it to her car at the end of the day, getting ready to head home, so she opens up her lunchbox, surprised when a piece of paper falls out of it. She picks it up and finds it’s a note, well more like a letter from how long it is, and she thinks about crumpling it up, she’s not a kid anymore, but something in her heart makes her read it.

_ Hey Gosalyn, so it’s your last day of high school, huh? How crazy! Your Dad and I can’t believe this day is finally here, it feels like only yesterday we were in court adopting you. But now, here you are, a wonderful young lady about to take on the world. We really can’t say enough just how proud we are of you, and how we know you’re going to go on to do amazing things. You’re so unbelievably smart and amazing that it’s no wonder so many colleges have accepted you already, and whichever one you (finally) decide to pick is going to be perfect and you’re just gonna make your Dad and I even more proud when you get there. We love you so much, Gosalyn, and I’m sorry if it embarrasses you to hear it but you’ll always be my little baby girl. - Love, Pops _

She somehow manages to not crash on the drive home even though she’s driving through tears, and she doesn’t even turn the car off, barely getting it in park, before she runs inside, her dads looking up at her in surprise from where they sit watching tv in the living room. She launches herself into her Pops’ arms, sobbing her apologies out into his chest and telling him he can call her whatever she likes. Launchpad just rubs her back through it all, wiping away her tears and holding her by the face when she’s finished, kissing her forehead.

“You’re forgiven, even if you have been a bit of a jerk lately.” he teases, pulling her in for a tight hug that lets her know everything is going to be alright.

“I love you, Cupcake.”

After the funeral, the car ride home is silent, and she pauses for a second after parking in the driveway of her childhood home, taking in everything as it had been a while since she’d been back. Turning the car off, she gets out and goes over to the passenger side, opening the door for her Dad, frowning when he just sits there looking down at his hand and the wedding band on his finger.

“Dad, we’re home.” she says softly, rubbing his arm and giving him a tight smile when he finally snaps out of it and meets her eyes, and his are as red-rimmed and bloodshot as her own.

“You… you go on ahead inside… I- Just give me a moment, ok?” he explains shakily, patting her hand.

She nods, heading over to the door and faltering before she turns the key, feeling like she can’t breathe when it hits her that this will be her first time in the house without her Pops waiting there for her, and she nearly buckles right there. Soldiering through the intense ache in her chest, she opens the door with unsteady hands, stepping inside to find it’s just how she remembered it, wrapping her arms around herself as she walks through the house, ignoring any picture on the walls with him in it like the plague.

She finds her bedroom right where she left it, exactly as she remembers it from the last time she had visited, which feels like ages ago. She sits down on her old bed, waving away the dust that fills the air as she does so, looking around her room with a sigh. Feeling like she needed to do something with her hands or she would just start crying again, she fiddles with her nightstand, going through the drawers and digging through them idly, until her fingers rub over a piece of paper.

Raising an eyebrow in confusion, she pushes stuff aside until she finds the source, a sticky note stuck to the bottom of the drawer, and her heart drops to her stomach. Pulling it free carefully, she thinks about crumpling it up and throwing it away, not needing any more reminders of how her Pops was gone, but the angry thought is gone almost as soon as it appears, and she reads the note through tear filled eyes.

_ Hey! You found me! Goooood Morning (or is it the afternoon? What year is it?), Cupcake! So glad you're in our life! _

She can’t help but laugh wetly at the note, her laughs turning into sobs as she reads over it a couple more times, clutching the note tight in her hand before she pulls her nightstand to the ground with a crash, screaming in sadness and rage at the unfairness of it all. She goes around her room tearing pictures down and throwing anything she could find at the wall before collapsing to the ground exhausted, weeping into her arms and wishing she could get rid of the pain in her chest. She had been too young to feel this when she lost her birth parents, but now it’s so painfully raw and real that she wishes for a moment that she’d never been adopted, sure that being alone all her life would have been far less painful than this. 

She looks at the piece of paper, now rumpled from being clenched in her fist and drops it to the floor, curling up into herself with her back to it.

“Found another one, huh? I keep finding them, too…” comes her Dad’s voice suddenly from beside her, one of his hands coming to rest on her back. She turns to find him there, fresh tears pouring down his face as he holds the note, laughing to himself when he reads it. She winces as she thinks about the fact the Pops had been in the hospital for a while before… so she could imagine every note Dad would find while he wasn’t home was like a knife to the chest. 

She sits up a little, leaning against her bed for support, “Come live with me, Dad. Violet and the kids wouldn’t mind and I don’t want you to keep finding these things…” she pleads, having already tried asking him a couple times before but all with the same answer.

“No. It’s like he’s still here, almost…” he whimpers, and she pulls him into her arms as he begins sobbing, both taking a while to cry on the floor of her ruined room.

Once they finally calm down, Drake gets up without a word, going somewhere in the house before coming back holding a box, and she knows instantly what it is as he stares at it with a fond smile, since she has a box of her own. He sits on the floor with her, opening it to reveal what must be hundreds of notes, and she smiles at them before getting up to get her own stash box, and Drake laughs when he sees just how many notes she has as well. 

“He really was something, wasn’t he…” Drake sighs, his voice wavering slightly but this time he doesn’t cry.

“Yeah, Pops was great…” she nods, adding her newest note to the box.

They spend the rest of the day reading notes and telling stories about Launchpad to each other, eventually getting up to put her room back together, and as they put things back where they go, some semblance of normalcy comes back, and Gosalyn knows everything is going to be alright.


End file.
